rowingboatI think CTO intends to ultimately open up about 15...

rowingboat

I think CTO intends to ultimately open up about 15 mine faces of which 10 are expected to produce simultaneously at Warrior (each stope may have a couple of mine faces).

So the 5 unproductive mine faces might be the ones that are between pods I guess ...when they would be working their way/looking for the next productive pod? .
When they get to the next productive pod they would in turn switch over to being a productive mine face... and the on/off, 10 on, 5 off cycle continues.

5/15 implies that 1/3rd of the time we would be between producing pods ?

so they are planning to tackle the expected inconsistency of the ore by blending from a number of productive faces (10).

I hope that what i've posted above is what was conveyed to me.
I'd appreciate if you or someone else would call the company up and re-check the above and also ask the questions relating to your concerns about the small pods and possible cost blow outs - Chris Towsey would be the best person to speak to.